The New Groom Chapter 26

After vomiting everything and losing all his strength, Lee Jeongrok sprawled out limply on the sofa. Joo Seungchan, who had bought a bloodletting device from the pharmacy, patted his back vigorously once more. The feeling of relief was beyond words. He pulled and tugged at Lee Jeongrok’s arm until it felt like it would be ripped out to drive blood into his hands. After pricking his blackened fingertips one by one with the lancet to let the blood out, he felt, whether it was psychological or not, as if his stomach were starting to feel better. Lee Jeongrok finally let out a long breath.

“Oh my god, look at how black this blood is. You were really, really severely bloated. We have to get all this black blood out. That’s the only way the indigestion will go down.”

Joo Seungchan made a huge fuss while squeezing his fingers tightly. Lee Jeongrok, watching silently, let out a hollow laugh at how pathetic he felt while also finding the situation absurd. It was maddening that the very person who had caused his indigestion was the one performing the bloodletting. He used to jump and be startled if Joo Seungchan so much as touched him with a single finger, yet now he was comfortably surrendering his body, whether he was patting his back or massaging his arms.

Joo Seungchan noticed him giggling a beat late.

“Why are you smiling so provocatively again?”

“…”

“Getting all worked up just because I massaged your hand a little. Honestly, you’re so damn easy.”

“Isn’t the one who’s ‘easy’ you, Manager Joo?”

Until now, Lee Jeongrok had been too overwhelmed by Joo Seungchan’s sophistry to retort properly, but completely exhausted, he shot back with a “come what may” attitude.

“Seeing as you’re so thoroughly delusional, acting like I’m ‘getting worked up’ just because you’re looking at a sick person, it seems like the whore… is you.”

“Whore? Whore what? Whore? That goes without saying. If we’re talking about acting like a whore, even if you graduated from Seoul National University, I’m a step above you, Young Master. You saw my cock, right? How could I just keep something so precious neatly tucked away? It only makes sense to use it like a damn floor rag.”

“…How does that calculation… forget it.”

“Though, I suppose that calculation doesn’t add up for a newlywed bridegroom living in celibacy?”

“…”

Lee Jeongrok, having given an inch and received a mile back, just shut his mouth. He became tired rapidly. There was no way to win against the lack of logic from an ignorant bastard by arguing with him. Closing his eyes tight, he just felt the massage hands kneading his own. It would have been nice if that had been all.

It was a beat too late when something soft and squishy touched his lips. Joo Seungchan kissed him, even closing his eyes tight. He rolled Lee Jeongrok’s lips inside his mouth as carefully as if he were savoring a piece of candy. As soon as Lee Jeongrok lost his spirit and opened his mouth halfway, Joo Seungchan invaded as if he had been waiting for it. Lee Jeongrok bit his lips with all his might.

It had the opposite effect. Joo Seungchan, letting out a huff through his nose, pushed Lee Jeongrok down onto the sofa and kissed him obsessively. Lee Jeongrok beat his shoulders with his fists and thrashed about, but it was useless. The giant, nearly two-meter-tall man pressed him down with his weight and sucked and chewed on his lips recklessly.

Blood flowed in, and a fishy smell spread through his mouth. Lee Jeongrok felt like gagging from disgust, but Joo Seungchan didn’t care. Instead, he gripped Lee Jeongrok’s cheeks with his large hands to hold them steady and shoved his tongue in. Because his thick tongue was filling his mouth and rubbing against him, Lee Jeongrok was suffocating, and saliva began to drool out.

Joo Seungchan, having sucked and licked to his heart’s content, finally pulled his lips away. His thigh, touching between Lee Jeongrok’s crotch, was exceptionally hot. Unable to endure the surging rage, Lee Jeongrok hammered his fists against Joo Seungchan’s head.

“Ow, ah. Ah. Wow, Young Master’s fists are quite spicy.”

“Y-you! You son of a bitch!”

Joo Seungchan, who easily caught his wrists, laughed “kyakya.” Lee Jeongrok’s lips, which he had bitten hard, were tattered and covered in blood. Even so, he didn’t look like he was in pain at all. At the end of his struggle, Lee Jeongrok spat saliva into Joo Seungchan’s face. Disgustingly, Joo Seungchan licked up the saliva that had flowed down hitting the bridge of his nose. Lee Jeongrok, who had a weak stomach, gagged again.

“No, we’ve been kissing this whole time, is saliva dirty? Why are you trying to vomit?”

“Ugh, ugh, blech…”

“You spat it out yourself, damn, it’s so funny. Kyahaha.”

“V-v-vomit, I’m really going to vomit. Move.”

Lee Jeongrok, who had essentially rolled off the sofa, ran hurriedly to the restroom. Because he had cleanly emptied his stomach a while ago, nothing came out even when he tried to vomit. After dry-heaving for a long time, he collapsed in exhaustion. Joo Seungchan, who had followed him, clicked his tongue.

“Sigh, you’re so much work, so much work. Being a servant isn’t easy, either. It’s terrifyingly hard to live serving a Seoul Young Master.”

Grumbling, he lifted Lee Jeongrok, who was sprawled out on the bathroom floor, and laid him on the sofa. Thinking he would continue to grate on his nerves, he was surprised when Joo Seungchan silently closed the office door and left without a word. Lee Jeongrok fell into a deep sleep just like that. When he woke up suddenly after sleeping soundly, an ion drink and a box of medicine were placed on the table. Lee Jeongrok swept them all up and shoved them into the trash can.

He could take no more. Like this, things like this—this was not a way for a person to live. He could not live like this. Lee Jeongrok, who had been staring for a long time at the window outside where rain was pouring down, pulled the blinds down.

∞ ∞ ∞

Despite last night’s cold war, Hwang Imin fortunately seemed to be in a better mood.

Lee Jeongrok, having returned from work, wanted to skip dinner because his indigestion hadn’t subsided yet, but he forced himself to sit at the dining table, mindful of his wife. That evening, only the three of them—Hwang Bosik, his daughter, and Lee Jeongrok—sat around the table. His mother-in-law, Kim Soohyun, was scheduled to return home late in the night due to a delayed meeting in Seoul.

His mother-in-law was absent, but the atmosphere was not bad. Hwang Bosik, for some reason, proposed that they join him for a company schedule. It was quite different from his usual behavior of not assigning Lee Jeongrok important tasks and subtly ostracizing him.

“Let’s go to Mihang-dong and take a few pictures together. Once that damn rain stops. Since your face is decent enough to be presentable, isn’t it perfect for taking pictures?”

“…Yes, Father-in-law.”

“I’m going to eat dinner with the city officials and then come back, so Mini (Hwang Bosik’s nickname for Hwang Imin), make sure you know that your husband is coming home late that day. Eat with your mother, you two. Don’t go out and eat with friends, and take good care of your mom.”

“Okay.”

For a moment, Hwang Bosik focused on eating his soybean paste stew. He scooped up broth for a long time before throwing out a single sentence in a passing tone.

“And, about that day, you’ll have to speak properly when we go.”

“If you mean about speaking…”

“There’s a guy I find annoying. There’s a guy who’s always acting knowledgeable and using fancy words every chance he gets, so I want you to knock him down a peg or two. No matter how well-off the guy is, can he really show off in front of a Seoul National University hotshot?”

It seemed this was the real purpose. Since he was being ignored as an organized crime member and a middle-school graduate, he intended to save face by putting forward his Seoul University son-in-law.

But even so, can he hide his vulgar roots, having rolled around in the gutters? No matter how much money he had, no matter how loudly he lived, as Hwang Bosik had said with his own mouth, he was nothing more than a perpetual gangster thug. An unchangeable root, an unalterable essence, a lower-class person born from a different umbilical cord.

Lee Jeongrok laughed at his father-in-law inwardly while responding politely on the outside.

“Yes, I understand. I will instruct Secretary Yoon to align the schedule for that day.”

“Good.”

Although he pretended to be indifferent, Hwang Bosik’s satisfaction was evident. He kept picking up and eating pumpkin pancakes for no reason, then asked as if he had just remembered.

“Now that I think about it, what’s up with Secretary Yoon’s face?”

“What about Secretary Yoon?”

Hwang Imin, who had been looking at her phone without joining the conversation between the two, asked. Lee Jeongrok flinched at the sudden change in topic. To maintain his composure, he stared only at his rice bowl and barely managed to steady his breathing.

“Secretary Yoon, that bastard’s face has become a complete mess. Mini, didn’t you see it?”

“Yeah. I didn’t see it. Honey, do you know anything about it?”

“…That is.”

Lee Jeongrok wanted to keep his mouth shut about anything that happened on Saturday night.

He decided to play dumb for now.

“I don’t know the exact circumstances either. It seems he had some conflict with Manager Joo, but I generally don’t get involved in the affairs of subordinates…”

“Seungchan? Wait, then did Seungchan do that to Inho’s face too?”

Hwang Imin, whose eyes had widened, lowered her voice and whispered.

“No, Dad. I saw him coming into the house earlier, and his face was a wreck. He even has a splint on because his nasal bone is broken. It’s not just his nose; his teeth seem to be broken too, and he was limping and couldn’t even walk properly. Did you see it too, Dad?”

“I saw it.”

Hwang Bosik clicked his tongue as if he were displeased.